Written, directed and produced by Sooni Taraporevala and distributed by Studio 18, Little Zizou just manages to make it to the above average category. Sooni Taraporevala has been a part of almost every Mira Nair venture right from Salaam Bombay to The Namesake. After such a vast experience with different genres of movies, the expectation bar was already set high for Sooni with Little Zizou which does not even come close to the movies that she's previously worked on. Little Zizou is definitely a fresh script that simply is made for the multiplex audience. The movie is a little funny and a little emotional had it been funny or emotional completely, it would've done the trick.
Little Zizou is a story of 2 Parsi Families called the Khodaiji's and Pressvala's. Cyrus Khodaiji (Sohrab Ardeshir) who claims to be a religious Parsi healer wanting to establish a liberation organization for the Parsi's is often troubled by his Parsi counterpart Boman Pressvala (Boman Irani) who owns a Parsi news journal and is against the values and principles of Cyrus Khodaiji and makes sure to print articles against him every time. The youngest little boy of the Khodaiji family is Xerxes or Little Zizou (Jahan Bativala), a football freak who idolizes Zinedine Zidane and hopes to meet the football star if he ever toured Mumbai. His brother Artaxerxes (Imad Shah), a soft spoken artist and who visualizes life through his weird cartoons and dreams to build a Flight Simulator with his two other friends. The young little girl of the Pressvala's is Liana, who is clever and witty. The story just revolves around this subject and things go way too complicated when people react to the articles written by Boman Pressvala. The events that follow is to watch out for.
Little Zizou is a movie that could be watched once. It entertains you convincingly till the first half concludes but gets a little slow as you step into the second half. What is really good about the movie is, it keeps you with it till the end credits roll. The two child actors, Iyanah Bativala and Jahan Bativala steal the show. They're absolutely lovely and they make you love them as you watch the movie. They're naive and funny. Sohrab Ardeshir, who's seen mostly in ad-films gets his nod to show his acting skills and is impressive too. Boman Irani is very good as usual. Dilshad Patel, Shernaz Patel and Imad Shah have their done their bit convincingly.
Music by Bickram Ghosh is ordinary and suits the subject of the movie quite well. Little Zizou could be your movie for this weekend, provided there are many releases this week.
I will go with 7 out of 10 for Sooni Taraporevala's Little Zizou.
And a thumbs up to the two child actors of the movie.
Raghav Movie Critic, Writer's Lounge
for more reviews: www.raghavthecritic.blogspot.com
